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Friday, December 21, 2007

First Bot Thought

I've been interested in robots and robotics for at least 15 years now. Aside from a half-baked experiment or three, hundreds of ideas and drawings, and reading a bunch of books, I haven't managed to make the torture of earning that computer engineering degree truly worthwhile. (By entertaining friends and impressing family, of course).

Maybe that is all about to change. Once again, I've caught the bug--for robotic bugs, as in BEAM robotics. Something small scale. Simple. A project I might actually be able to complete. If nothing else, I've been having a lot of ideas about robotics lately. So I figured, why not foist them on the planet in the form of Yet Another Blog--er, I mean, share them you, gentle reader.

To get started, here's my first real robot. Store bought (not trying to cheat, trying to get inspired). For $10 you can get this simple, tiny hexapod walker from RadioShack. Features obstacle avoidance via wire antennas and it responds to loud noises. All in a package the size of a kiwi fruit.

Pretty exciting what technology has made possible in robotics. Can't wait to make my own...